Henry Wong wrote:Considering the amount of drinking that takes place during that day, isn't having a headache expected?

Very true, but the green beer and drunken madness is fairly recent.

For the good Irish Catholic, St Paddy's day is a day to go to Mass. Perhaps contemplate the Trinity.

Larry Chung
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posted Mar 19, 2010 10:31:08

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Pat Farrell wrote:

Henry Wong wrote:Considering the amount of drinking that takes place during that day, isn't having a headache expected?

Very true, but the green beer and drunken madness is fairly recent.

For the good Irish Catholic, St Paddy's day is a day to go to Mass. Perhaps contemplate the Trinity.

I've observed St. Paddy's Day all my life because I had the good fortune to be born on that day. So with that plus also being Catholic, I deplore how society at large have no clue who St. Patrick is but have made the day into a wild drunkfest. I also resent that the four-leaf clover is used more and more as a symbol of the holiday. It's the Trinity, stupid.

Larry Chung wrote:I've observed St. Paddy's Day all my life because I had the good fortune to be born on that day.

So why are you Larry and not Patrick. I too was born on March 17, and since my folks' families were Irish Catholic immigrants, I was going to be named Patrick no matter what.

Larry Chung
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posted Mar 19, 2010 10:44:18

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Pat Farrell wrote:

Larry Chung wrote:I've observed St. Paddy's Day all my life because I had the good fortune to be born on that day.

So why are you Larry and not Patrick. I too was born on March 17, and since my folks' families were Irish Catholic immigrants, I was going to be named Patrick no matter what.

I blame my Chinese Catholic immigrant parents who did not know any better and actually were taken by surprise that it was a holiday when I was born. However, I did try to rectify that by taking a Confirmation name of Patrick. Of course, the Dominican Irish Catholic nuns in my parochial school approved. Happy Birthday, Pat!

BTW, over the years, have you notice how large organizations like the Federal Government have used March 17th as a deadline or start date for something or another. Not March 15th--the Ides of March-- or March 19th--St. Joseph's Day--but March 17th!

There sure are a lot of Catholic immigrants all over the world. Guess that's why I'm a fan of letting people who want to come to you country to work and raise a family enter. In the US, we are all immigrants, even the "native americans" came over from Siberia a few tens of thousands of years ago.

Larry Chung
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posted Mar 19, 2010 11:25:24

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Thanks, Pat!

Hoping not to get shot by those self-appointed minutemen stationed along the Rio Grande, I have to agree that anyone who wants to come into the country to contribute and to live a good life should be allowed with no restrictions.

The story of the Native Americans holds a particularly special interest to me and I have followed some of the scientific research about their history. I found this one very intriguing article in Nature, which last month reported that DNA sequencing of 4,400 year old human remains in Greenland showed similarities with those of people in East Asia. Nevertheless, any people who lasted over 5 millennia on this continent deserves to be called native. That is as long or longer than when Europe has been inhabited by Europeans. After all, do we say that the Bavarians are just immigrants to Bavaria because they moved into that southeast part of Germany two thousand years ago from Jutland or some other place in the Baltics? Although, I try to avoid applying such a double standard to Native Americans, I surely would hate to give up and give back my land to them because I've grown too attached to it.

Pat Farrell wrote: Very true, but the green beer and drunken madness is fairly recent.

I'm not having any luck drumming up a crew to celebrate St. Joseph's Day, so count your blessings. At least you can complain about being popular. Oh, that's such a drag, having millions of well-wishers and parades and cheap beer.
My namesake gets a Solemnity. Not even a full-blown Holy Day of Obligation. It is just not fair. I'm getting a drink.

Now if we actually got the day off from work, I might take some interest in St Patrick's Day. But it's really just a faux holiday. I don't care for dressing up and drinking beer anyway, so I just ignore it.

Larry Chung
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posted Mar 19, 2010 12:24:59

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Joe Ess wrote: I'm not having any luck drumming up a crew to celebrate St. Joseph's Day, so count your blessings. At least you can complain about being popular. Oh, that's such a drag, having millions of well-wishers and parades and cheap beer.
My namesake gets a Solemnity. Not even a full-blown Holy Day of Obligation. It is just not fair. I'm getting a drink.

Well, as you may have noticed in the wikipedia reference, today also known as the Feast of San Giuseppe and in the Sicilian neighborhood where I grew up, it was considered almost a Holy Day of Obligation. Since it always occurs during Lent, of course there should be solemnity (just like the original observance of St. Patrick's Day) but then there is a lot that delicious honey-drenched zeppole. They're almost too good for Lent (and Pesach for our Jewish brothers and sisters).